3. Google’s Nexus devices don’t have Carrier IQ on them no matter what carrier they are on. Pure Android devices and many Android devices don’t have it. The carrier determines what products get the software. Google is powerless to stop carriers from putting them on Android devices.

4. If you have a Carrier locked phone, the best way to get rid of Carrier IQ is to install Cyanogen Mod…or wait a few days until this all blows over and updates are issued.

5. Verizon, the number 1 Android carrier in the US has denied using Carrier IQ. So that leaves out a lot of you.

Sure, it's "out of Google's hands." But guess what, Apple doesn't allow this garbage on an iPhone. Android COULD prevent the carriers from doing this when it does contracts with them. We already know that although Android is "open and free," that the carriers and manufacturers get access before everybody else, and Google releases the source code at a later date. So, companies that want to wait until the source code is open to the public can put stuff like this on the phone, but companies that want access to the newest version of Android would be barred from putting stuff like this on the phone.

The phone maker designs the "hooks" that define what ciq an do. The carrier just chooses from that subset. So if it's on any google phone that's because the maker made it that way and let or restricted it volunteerly. That's why it's so limited on iPhone.

Apple still has a form of CarrierIQ on its iPhones. The difference is, they don't log keystrokes, location info, or other personally identifying info. So just because it has an embedded app that has the same name, it's not the same. Not by a long shot.

And as for your assertion that Google has no control of what the carriers place on their phones, that very well may be true, but Apple certainly DOES have that control. And that's one of the major differences between iOS and Android and is one of the major reasons why I prefer iOS to the free-for-all that is Android.